The legal acts will be published in the Official Journal on September 13. The European Union has prolonged for six months individual restrictive measures against 170 citizens and 44 legal entities of Russia and Ukraine, the Council of the European Union said in a statement released in Brussels on Thursday. "The Council has extended the restrictive measures over actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine for a further six months, until 15 March 2020," the statement says. "They currently apply to 170 persons and 44 entities."

Bluff was a central feature of British power even when the British empire covered a large part of the globe. A story illustrating this tells of a royal navy captain who was sent with a small ship to the far east to force a defiant local ruler to obey some orders issued by the British authorities.

The stern warning comes just days after the UK Parliament passed a bill that obliges Prime Minister Boris Johnson to seek an extension of the October 31 deadline from Brussels if no Brexit deal has by then been negotiated with the EU. If the bloc proposes a different divorce date, then Downing Street still has to accept it within two days.
But that’s unlikely to be the case. “In the current circumstances, it’s no!” French Foreign Minister Jean Yves le Drian said, as cited by AFP.

Bulldogs are notorious for their tenacity or “cool persistency of purpose”, as Honest Abe said of General Grant, “He has the grip of a bulldog; when he once gets his teeth in, nothing can shake him off.” The EU master class could give the doggies a lockjaw master-class. Many European states have tried to free themselves from the Prison of the European Nations; all failed.

A coalition government deal between the 5 Star Movement and its long-time rival the Democratic Party was approved by about 80% of the 80,000 5 Star Movement grass roots members who cast their preference on the movement`s online voting platform on Tuesday.

All 21 “rebels” have been thrown out of the Conservative Party, the BBC reported citing sources inside the government on Tuesday evening. This includes Hammond, Ken Clarke, Greg Clark, David Gauke, Justine Greening, and Nicholas Soames, among others.

Sponsored by Labour MP Hilary Benn and backed by a number of defectors from Johnson’s Conservative party like Oliver Letwin, the motion sailed through the Commons with a vote of 328 to 301 on Tuesday evening.

Spanish Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday there were too many disagreements with far-left Unidas Podemos to form a coalition government but offered an option that would see the parties agree on policies and give non-cabinet positions to Podemos.

Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has welcomed the prospect of an early general election. Addressing a rally in Salford yesterday, Corbyn said he would be “delighted” at the prospect of an election which “we will win”.

Facing a Parliamentary majority opposed to a hard Brexit - a crashing out of the EU if Britain is not offered a deal she can live with - Boris Johnson took matters into his own hands. He went to the Queen at Balmoral and got Parliament “prorogued,” suspended, from Sept. 12 to Oct. 14. That’s two weeks before the Oct. 31 deadline Johnson has set for Britain’s departure. The time his opposition in Parliament has to prevent a crash out of the European Union has just been sliced in half. His adversaries are incensed.

As Scotland’s Tory government heads into disarray with the recent resignation of its leader, pro-remainers have one last chance: to join Britain’s Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, in his drive to establish a caretaker government in Parliament.

Parliament will convene again in early September. The Brexit date is October 31. The opposition planned to seek legislation to stop Brexit and/or to hold a vote of no confidence in the Boris government. This would install a new government with the sole task of preventing Brexit without a deal. The problem is that the process takes time and Parliament days are limited. The government has several means to prevent Parliament from having enough time to discuss the issue and to vote on it. Today it used a quite effective one.

Gibraltar’s government has released an Iranian-operated supertanker, which was seized by British marines in the Strait of Gibraltar on July 4, despite pressure from the United States for the vessel’s continued detainment.

The leader of Italy`s ruling League party, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, declared the governing coalition to be unworkable on Thursday after months of internal bickering and said the only way forward was to hold fresh elections.

Britain’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, is being called by many ‘the British Trump.’ It’s an easy comparison, given their quirky, confrontational styles, prominent blond hair, tribal politics and xenophobic policies. But they are not alike. Johnson is a literate, witty product of Britain’s finest educational institutions, Eton and Oxford, who down-plays his erudition and upper class roots. Trump is just the opposite. But both are consummate entertainers, which is essential in today’s TV-driven politics.

The recent elections to the Ukrainian Rada have yielded two most interesting results: First, almost all the nationalist parties failed to get even one representative elected to the Rada (Poroshenko’s and Timoshenko’s parties did get some seats, but only 25 each) Second, for the first time since the independence of the Ukraine, the country’s President will have an absolute majority in the Rada.

For the 37th consecutive Saturday the anti-government Yellow Vests marched nationwide. They continue to be the only social movement in recent memory which has not gone on Christmas or now summer vacation.

Western states are fundamentally broken down because “liberalism” is an empty term which conceals rapacious corporate capitalism and the oligarchic rule of an elite political class. The advocates of “liberalism” like Britain’s May, Johnson, Hunt or Tusk are the ones who are anti-democracy, anti-human rights and anti-law.

Former German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has been narrowly confirmed as the next President of the European Commission, the powerful administrative arm of the European Union. In a secret ballot in the European Parliament on July 16, von der Leyen, a close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, received 383 votes, only nine more than the 374 required — the lowest margin since the position of President was established in 1958....Her proposals would substantially increase the role of Brussels in virtually all aspects of economic and social life in Europe — all at the expense of national sovereignty.

The new leadership team of the EU is insane. They learned nothing from May’s vote which saw the middle ground occupied by Angela Merkel lose ground. Euroskeptics doubled their representation while nationalist Greens gained ground as well. The European People’s Party lost significant clout and was forced into unprecedented haggling over the leadership bloc. Merkel, now having no political future to protect, as her last act of betrayal to Germany engineered the ‘election’ of Ursula von der Leyen to replace Jean-Claude “When things get tough you have to lie” Juncker as European Commission President. Von der Leyen is more of a euro-integrationist than Juncker was. It’s clear they circled the wagons knowing that, as Nigel Farage points out in this clip, the EU will look nothing like it does now in five years when her term is up.